Lasers have become common in modern life, from their roles in humble bar-code readers and DVD
players to the movie versions that blast spaceships out of the skies. Real laser weapons are much more mundane
than the movie versions, and much harder to build than the industrial versions. Yet the real story of the
development of all types of lasers since their invention in 1960 is fascinating, multicultural, and ongoing.
In fact, several technical societies sponsored Laserfest online (http://www.laserfest.org/) in 2010 to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the laser’s invention.
Numerous history books have been written about various aspects of laser invention and development over the
half-century. Few if any of these address laser weapons, however, due to the classified nature of much of the
work. Although a significant body of literature on laser weapons in the popular technical press is available in
journals such as Aviation Week, Space News, Aerospace America, Laser Focus World, and Photonics Spectra,
most of this material focuses on big-budget programs such as the Airborne Laser and (in the days of President Reagan’s
Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars") space-based lasers designed to do the big job of shooting down
surface-to-surface or intercontinental ballistic missiles (weapons of mass destruction).
Laser weapons built for the Army always had a more modest and (to some) less newsworthy mission of protecting
troops on the battlefield by targeting aircraft and short-range missiles -- standard battlefield weapons that
normally do not threaten civilian populations. Thus, no attempt has been made to date to document for the general
reader the contribution made by the U.S. Army to laser weapon development over the last 60 years. Such a task covering
all Army laser efforts is beyond the knowledge and skill of this author. However, I am familiar with the laser weapon
development programs at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and know (or knew) personally many of the individuals who worked
on those programs. The history of these programs is important, not only to science buffs, but also to national
history, because in 1976 Redstone produced the first mobile laser weapon demonstrator in the world. Because of
this, Redstone laser programs will likely lead to (or at least contribute significantly to) America’s first
deployed high-energy laser weapon. My goal is to document some key aspects of these programs before all the personnel
who worked them die of old age.
The following history of laser weapon development at Redstone Arsenal is incomplete for two reasons. First,
although not all the documents stored at the Redstone Scientific Information Center pertaining to laser weapon
development are classified, very few are in the public domain (meaning they can be released to the public without
permission from the originator). Thus, most documents are not available for use in a history meant to be read and
used by scholars and the general public. Of the few that are in the public domain, most deal with programs other
than the ones reported herein. Next, in the 50-plus years covered by this history, a much larger number of laser
technology programs (notably, on laser guidance of missiles) were undertaken by scientists at Redstone Arsenal
than are recounted here. Omission of these programs is partly due to my time and knowledge limitations, and partly
due to no clear or direct relation of these technology programs to development of the recognized, named laser
systems discussed herein. My goal is thus to focus only on those laser programs at Redstone that produced an
actual working hardware system that, while not a laser weapon itself, would have been a step toward such a
weapon had the Army decided to continue weaponization of the system (e.g., MTU or THEL); or a laser weapon
system design study that had serious resources applied to it, and could have become a deployed weapon (albeit
with some technical limitations) had the Army decided to build it (e.g., MTHEL); or a working laboratory laser
system that contributed significantly to one of the above approaches.
Finally, having few other (open) sources to draw upon, the information presented here is primarily from my
own memories and the memories of scientists who were personally involved in the programs described. References
to documents, emails, and conversations are given where they exist; otherwise, the information is from generally
available knowledge gained through 44 years of working at Redstone Arsenal. Those to whom I am particularly indebted
for conversations and/or written material follow:
- Tom Roberts
- Miles Holloman
- Buford Jennings
- Bill Friday
- Whitney Blanchard
- Stanley Patterson
- Charles Cason
- Tony Duncan
- Joe C. Walters
- John J. Wachs
- Gerald Wilson
- Owen Hofer (Sparta, Inc.)
- Joe Connaughton
Another primary source of direction for this book is a document by Holloman and Jennings written in 1995 about
the programmatic history of laser weapons at Redstone to that date. Most of the emphasis of that document was on
how the Redstone scientists managed to do laser research, and achieve major milestones in weapon development in
spite of the Army’s wildly fluctuating interest in the subject, and even more uncertain funding cycles for laser
weapons. This present book attempts to fill in the technical and personnel details omitted from the Holloman-Jennings
report.
Although this book concerns a technical subject, it is written for historians and other laypersons not familiar
with real lasers. Basic laser concepts are described in a way I hope will provide enough information for the reader
to understand generally the problems faced by laser scientists, but not detract from the goal of documenting the
history of these programs and systems. It is assumed that readers have an understanding (high school level or above)
of basic physics concepts such as energy and power and their various forms and conversion schemes. Beyond that, there
are many laser textbooks the interested reader can consult. (See, for example, An Introduction to Lasers and Their
Applications by Donald O’Shea, Russell Callan, and William Rhodes [Addison-Wesley, 1977]; BEAM: The Race to Make the
Laser, by Jeff Hecht [Oxford University Press, 2010]; Optical Electronics, 3rd ed., by Amnon Yariv [Holt McDougal, 1984];
and Introduction to Laser Technology, 3rd ed., by C. Breck Hitz, J. J. Ewing, and Jeff Hecht [Wiley/IEEE Press, 2001].)
For the record, my credentials follow: B.A. in physics and mathematics, M.S. in solid state physics, and Sc.D.
in laser physics; work with Boeing Aerospace Company for seven years, including research on techniques to protect
U.S. satellites from laser weapons; member of the Directed Energy Weapons staff at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s
Missile & Space Intelligence Center (MSIC), Redstone Arsenal, for 32 years (1977-2009), and service as consultant
to the MSIC DEW staff for 4 years after retirement; held a 2-year sabbatical assignment while employed by MSIC
(1983-1985) at the Army Missile Command’s Directed Energy Directorate at Redstone Arsenal working with the
aforementioned scientists; member of the United States Intelligence Community’s Directed Energy Weapon Subcommittee
for 28 years (1980-2008) and chair of this committee for eight years (1990-1998); and retired as the Department of
Defense senior intelligence officer for directed energy weapons (2009). Taking all of these considerations and
constraints into account, my goal is to give as complete a history as possible of specific laser weapon development
programs at Redstone Arsenal.
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